Biography

William Wakeford was born in 1825 at christened on 25 May 1825 at St. Peter-the-Great, Chichester, Sussex, England. His parents were William Wakeford & Maria (Jennings) Wakeford. [1]

William Wakeford married Elizabeth Verney about 1853.

William & Elizabeth and theri children emigrated to Australia in 1856.

William Wakeford age 71 died on 15 February 1897 at Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia. [2]

"OBITUARY" The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 - 1950) 20 February 1897
OBITUARY. Mr. William Wakeford.
On Monday evening Mr. William Wakeford passed away, after a long and painful illness, at the ripe old age of 71 years.
Born in England, he started work as a boy for the firm of Peto, Brassey and Betts, and worked his way up till he was placed in charge of the Victoria Docks in London, the Southampton Docks and the Harbour of Refuge at Folkstone.
He left England in '56 for Melbourne, and after some minor works we find him in '59 in New South Wales undertaking the Menangle cutting and supervising the building of the Menangle bridge for the old firm of Peto, Brassey and Betts.
After its completion, he joined Mr. Larkins, of Appin, in railway constructing. Their first job was the platelaying of the railway over the Blue Mountains, from Penrith to Mount Victoria.
In 1866 he built the approaches to the Nepean Bridge, washed away by the flood in that year. Then he took several contracts on the line Singleton to Muswellbrook, also the Kiama harbour works, and the railway from Murrurundi to Tamworth. He had an interest later, in conjunction with Mr. Blunt, in the contract for railway construction at Cooktown, North Queensland. His last work was superintending the finishing of the embankment at Prospect Reservoir on its showing signs of breaking down after leaving the hands of the contractors. He did this under instructions from Mr. James Fletcher, the then Minister for Works.
The Metropolitan Board of Water Supply finally appointed him to the office of Superintendent of the whole work from the cataract down to Potts' Hill which he held to the time of his death.
The funeral took place on Wednesday, leaving Prospect at half past one from Enfield, and was followed by the family carriage and two mourning coaches containing deceased's sons and relatives, and by the officers and men under his supervision at Prospect. The cortage was joined at Homebush by the linemen on the water canal, and at Burwood by the members of the Board of Water Supply and the principal officers and many old friends of the deceased gentleman.

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